1 hour, 3 minutes and a couple of seconds. No reply. Sherlock twirled a pipette in his fingers, observing the particular pattern made by the concentrated hydrochloric acid splattering across the table from his pipette. He sighed and wiped it off with his hand, suddenly bored by the samples he had been studying moments before. 'Effervescence', he noted aloud, glancing back at the bubbling Petri dishes. That meant that this case was closed, and the answer is so very glaringly obvious, simple, dull, with nothing clever about it, or tricky or a hidden challenge. Boring.
"John could you tell Lestrade-"
Sherlock looked around, then pulled out his own mobile to send the text. He thought about texting John again, for the fifth time, but no, John would laugh and tell him to stop worrying so much. He'd never had anyone to care about before, and he now felt like an annoyingly concerned mother. How irritating.
oOo
"Where are you? - SH"
"I solved the case, no thanks to you -SH"
"John? -SH"
"Okay, I admit it, I'm worried. -SH"
"Come. Home. Now. -SH"
"I'm calling my brother -SH"
"If you don't text me right now, I'll use your jam for my experiment. I will. -SH"
Thanks for reading and reviewing, it means a lot :) next chapter to follow soon!
update: as ButterfishJellyfly pointed out, wiping concentrated hydrochloric acid with your hand isn't a great idea, but it would take a while to start stinging (about ten minutes, according to an Alevel Chemistry teacher) and Sherlock's never been one to worry about his own safety so I'd like to think it still fits.